SACNAS Lifetime member receives critical grant funding from the NSF

 

POSTED ON May 27, 2020

 

The president of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) has issued a statement in celebration of Dr. Mary Jo Ondrechen’s National Science Foundation grant to study coronavirus. Dr. Ondrechen’s research will focus on finding ways to modify COVID-19’s destructive behavior.

“We applaud the career and immeasurable contributions of Dr. Ondrechen,  Dr. Sonia I. Zárate, said. “A scientist from the Mohawk Nation, SACNAS Lifetime Member and Outstanding Mentor award recipient, Dr. Ondrechen is advancing the frontiers of science and leading lifesaving research in the battle against COVID-19.”

Dr. Ondrechen is a professor of chemistry and biology at Northeastern University. Her research group specializes in theoretical and computational chemistry and computational biology.

Dr. Sonia Zárate is the fourth woman to lead SACNAS in its 45-year history and the first president to have benefitted from SACNAS since she was an undergraduate. Prior to her current appointment at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she was director for the Office of Undergraduate Research at the University of San Diego and the PI for an NSF-Research Experiences for Undergraduates focused on transfer and veteran students and Co-PI for a grant to enhance undergraduate biology education.

Dr. Zárate also served as the associate director for the Undergraduate Research Center-Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles where she directed the NIH-Maximizing Access to Research Careers-Undergraduate Student Training in Academic Research, NIH-Bridges to the Baccalaureate Research Training Program, NIH-Initiative for Maximizing Student Development, The University of California’s Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees (UC LEADS) program, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Research Fellows programs.